Backdated, archival post
[link to original on tumblr]
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Collection Audit:
I don't know if it's indicative of an influence or just a coincidence, but this same feature of the root and the fifth resembling footsteps is also present in Fats Domino's "Walking to New Orleans" (although that's with palm-muted guitar rather than bass), which - like "Don't Pass Me By" - also has a chord progression that consists only of the tonic, sub-dominant, and dominant (in Db major where "Don't Pass Me By" is in C major). Apparently, "Lady Madonna" was a pastiche of Domino's style, so the Beatles might have been familiar with "Walking to New Orleans" too.
I'm listening to The Beatles' eponymous album, and the bass part for "Don't Pass Me By" caught my ear. It's more elaborate than just the root and the fifth of whatever chord it's played beneath, but the root and the fifth are the most prominent notes. It provides an alternating figure that seems to portray the footsteps that are mentioned in the first verse:An-other post from my Collection Audit project that's relevant here too.
I listen for your footsteps comin' up the driveI also noticed that there's a bit of a pause within the last line of the first two verses, so there's a separation between "I don't hear it" and "does it mean you don't love me anymore?" and between "I don't see you" and "does it mean you don't love me anymore?" That pause emphasizes the not hearing and not seeing that are in the lyrics themselves.
Listen for your footsteps, but they don't arrive
I don't know if it's indicative of an influence or just a coincidence, but this same feature of the root and the fifth resembling footsteps is also present in Fats Domino's "Walking to New Orleans" (although that's with palm-muted guitar rather than bass), which - like "Don't Pass Me By" - also has a chord progression that consists only of the tonic, sub-dominant, and dominant (in Db major where "Don't Pass Me By" is in C major). Apparently, "Lady Madonna" was a pastiche of Domino's style, so the Beatles might have been familiar with "Walking to New Orleans" too.
